Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism in the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona)

© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121 Vol. 13 N.o 4. Special Issue Págs. 741-755. 2015 www .pasosonline.org Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism in the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona) Valerià Paül Carril* Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (España) Noelia Araújo Vila** Pablo de Carlos Villamarín*** Universidade de Vigo (España) Valerià Paül Carril, Noelia Araújo Vila, Pablo de Carlos Villamarín Abstract: Among the major changes that have occurred in the tourist sector in recent years, of particular note has been the constant emergence of new products that seek to satisfy the needs of tourists demanding new kinds of consumer experiences. A good example of this is agritourism, in which the tourist participates in the typical activities of a working farm. This study focuses on a recent variant of this type of tourism, known as vegetable tourism (or holeriturismo in Spanish). Specifically, an assessment is undertaken of a pioneering project in Spain on an agricultural park: the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona). Based on the information obtained from a survey conducted in the Park itself, the degree of visitor satisfaction with the various activities they experience is analysed. Using non-parametric statistical methods, the study seeks to determine whether the visitors’ socio-demographic profile and their knowledge of the concept of vegetable tourism have a significant impact on their assessments. Keywords: agritourism, vegetable tourism, Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat, non-parametric statistical methods, satisfaction. La evaluación de la satisfacción del visitante con un proyecto agroturístico pionero: el turismo de verduras en el Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona) Resumen: Entre los principales cambios que se han producido en el sector turístico en los últimos años, de mención especial ha sido la aparición constante de nuevos productos que buscan satisfacer las necesidades de los turistas más exigentes. Un buen ejemplo de ello es el agroturismo, en el que el turista participa en las actividades típicas de una explotación agraria. Este estudio se centra en una variante reciente de este tipo de turismo, conocida como holeriturismo. En concreto, el análisis se lleva a cabo en un proyecto pionero en España en un parque agrario: el Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona). Con base a la información obtenida de una encuesta realizada en el propio Parqu , se analiza el grado de satisfacción de los visitantes con las diversas actividades que experimentan. A través del uso de métodos estadísticos no paramétricos, el estudio busca determinar si el perfil sociodemográfico de los visitantes, y su conocimiento del concepto de turismo de verduras tienen un impacto significativo en sus valoraciones. Palabras Clave: agroturismo, holeriturismo, Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat, métodos estadísticos no paramétricos, satisfacción. * Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (España); E -mail: v[email protected] ** Doctora en Dirección y Planificación del Turismo. Investigadora y profesora invitada del Dpto. de Organización de Empresas y Marketing (Universidad de Vigo); E -mail: [email protected] ** Universidad de Vigo (España); E -mail: [email protected] https://doi.org/10.25145/j.pasos.2015.13.052 PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 742 Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism 1. Introduction Peri -urban agricultural spaces have gradually been converted into places for the practice of a range of leisure, recreational and tourist activities. Thus, the farmers’ traditional tasks are today being undertaken alongside other activities such as hiking and running (Bryant et al., 1982; Bryant and Johnston, 1992). The direct result of these changes has been the emergence in these spaces of the activities of agritourism, which have evolved considerably so that today they encompass the full participation of tourists in the tasks of a working farm, including the tasting of the products that are harvested and produced on it. This combination of leisure activities and agriculture does not require any particular investment, since it is based on an existing infrastructure: that of agriculture and the land. Furthermore, agritourism contributes to the conservation of an area’s farming, inasmuch as it “consumes” the products of farming as well as its places of production (Paül and Araújo, 2012; Michelin et al., 2007). Clearly, a key element here is the management of the public use of these peri -urban parks (Arnberger and Brandenburg, 2007). The leisure and recreational activities that were first to emerge at the urban edge were primarily walking, cycling and running. However, in more recent times, there has been a growing awareness of the need to promote more original initiatives to develop tourism and the public use of peri -urban agricultural parks, so that tourists might become more familiar with the agricultural nature of these spaces. It is this need that the agritourism sector has responded to, although in general the sector has been associated with quintessentially rural areas and not peri -urban areas (Paül and Araújo, 2012). In the Mediterranean region, peri -urban agriculture corresponds largely to its market gardens and orchards (Meeus, 1995), which means that agritourism should be based around horticultural crops, i.e. fruit and vegetables. From here we derive the Spanish term used in the Mediterranean of holeriturismo, from the Latin HOLUS meaning vegetable + tourism, that is, vegetable tourism, and which basically involves the exploration of the region’s market gardens and orchards. According to unpublished documents of the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park) – in which this variety of tourism has been a pioneer project – this variant of agritourism can be defined as the tourism that takes as its point of reference and main element of interest market garden vegetables and, by extension, fruit and all their associated qualities of flavour, colour and texture, etc., as well as the traditional practices employed by the farmers in their cultivation. In short, the aim is to disseminate a better understanding of the region’s market gardens. The large body of literature that has concerned itself with agritourism (Hoyland, 1982; Frater, 1983; Murphy, 1985; Pearce, 1990; Bowen et al., 1991; Hilchey, 1993; Viñals, 1999; Mesa, 2000; Przezbórska, 2003; Hernando et al., 2003; Phillip et al., 2010) has tended to focus its attention on what the sector can offer. Moreover, the few studies examining demand in the sector have tended to examine tourism in rural areas and not specifically agritourism (Kastenhold et al., 1999; Frochot, 2005; Molera and Albaladejo, 2007; Park and Yoon, 2009; Oh and Schuett, 2010). Drawing on survey information, this literature identifies different segments of tourists in relation to the benefits sought and determines their profiles as a function of their socio -demographic characteristics or patterns of behaviour while on holiday. However, from a review of this literature it quickly becomes apparent that little is known about the profile of the consumers of agritourism or their opinions about this type of tourism, essential information to provide the necessary feedback for those that promote this sector. This paper seeks to fill this gap. Based on the fundamental principle of marketing according to which all products have to satisfy the needs, desires and wants of the consumer, the concept of market segmentation emerges. This means “viewing a heterogeneous market as a number of smaller homogeneous markets, in response to differing preferences, attributable to the desires of customers for more precise satisfactions of their varying wants’’ (Smith, 1956, p.6). This strategic choice has enabled firms in many sectors to successfully tackle constant changes in consumer behaviour. A fundamental concern when undertaking such segmentation is the definition of the variables on which it will be based. Frank et al. (1972) proposed a classification of these variables that remains an essential reference in the field, as is evidenced by a number of recent studies including Li et al. (2011) and Radder and Han (2011). This classification identifies two levels, that of generality (general and brand specific) and that of objectivity (observable and unobservable), as shown in Table 1. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 Valerià Paül Carril, Noelia Araújo Vila, Pablo de Carlos Villamarín 743 Table 1: Model of variables that influence market segmentation General Specific Observable − Demographic: gender, age, marital status... − Socio -economic: income, occupation, education… − Geographic: nationality, región, habitat… − Usage frequency and situation − Brand and store loyalty − State of adoption − Type and place of purchase Unobservable − Personality traits − Personal values − Lifestyle − Perceptions − Expectations − Preferences − Attitudes Source: own elaboration based on Frank et al. (1972) According to the literature, segmentation analysis begins by examining the variables (objective and general) included in the northwest quadrant, or more specifically those that define the socio -demographic profile of the consumer. Indeed, a central concern of this paper, which seeks to fill gap in the literature on agritourism, is the delimitation of the socio -demographic profile of the tourist or visitor who participates in the activities associated with this type of tourism. The analysis also takes into account other segmentation variables (specific and subjective) that lie in the southeast quadrant of the proposed model, that is, the degree of knowledge that tourists have of the agritourism product being examined. Unsurprisingly, there is considerable consensus to the effect that consumer familiarity with a particular product category influences the assessments consumers make of novel versions of that product (Alba and Hutchinson, 1987; Zhou and Nakamoto, 2007). In short, by analysing whether different consumer groups make significantly different assessments, valuable information can be obtained that promoters can use to improve the design and subsequent acceptance of a product. This paper examines the vegetable tourism initiative undertaken by the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat (Barcelona, Spain). Planned in 2008, it was launched as a pilot project in 2009, to determine the degree of acceptance by tourists and visitors as well as by the farmers of the area. Exploiting the park’s typical resources, and in an attempt to link tourism to them, a range of activities are offered that make up an integrated tourism product: • Visits to farms specializing in one particular crop, in order to learn more about the specific vegetable and the landscape in which it is grown and to hear the explanations of the farmer. •Exhibitions dedicated to the specific vegetable in a specially designed interpretation centre. •Product tasting/production workshops. • Visits to restaurants in the area where dishes can be tasted using the vegetables grown in the park. •This is the first agritourism experience designed by a peri -urban agricultural park in Spain, as well as being the only one to be exclusively known as a vegetable tourism project. The pioneering nature of the present case gives added interest to this research. The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. In the next section the methodology employed is outlined, including details regarding the determination of the sample to be analysed. The results are then reported and discussed in the final concluding section. 2. Analytical methodology and sample Based on the findings of a survey conducted in the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat, this section analyses visitor assessments of the route and its activities, and also considers the level of understanding that the interviewees professed to have of vegetable tourism and the way in which they actually defined the activity. Similarly, using non -parametric tests, the study seeks to determine whether these assessments, including visitor responses regarding how much they know about vegetable tourism and how they define it, differ significantly depending on the characteristics of the respondents’ profiles. The aim is to provide information that can improve the design of vegetable tourism routes, taking into account the preferences and wishes of the target audience, and to highlight the extent to which it is important to explain to the visitors the activity they are taking part in. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 744 Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism To record the respondents’ level of satisfaction with the route and its activities, we used a Likert scale, as is usual in studies assessing the satisfaction of consumers or users of a product or service (Oliver, 1981; Dubé -Rioux, 1990; Oliver, 1999; Cronin et al., 2000; Vanhamme, 2000; Brady et al., 2001; Jun et al., 2001 and Van Dolen et al., 2004). Specifically, it is a five -point scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = indifferent, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree), composed of eleven items related to different aspects of the route and its activities that might affect the assessment that visitors make of the product being offered to them (Table 2). Table 2: Items used in evaluating visitor satisfaction with the route and its activities A The number of activities programmed is sufficient. B All the activities have been interesting. C All the explanations have been enjoyable. D I enjoyed the guided walk through the fields. E I enjoyed the guided visit to the exhibition. F I enjoyed tasting the artichokes. G I enjoyed meeting the farmer. H The activities lasted the right amount of time. I I enjoyed the pacing and rhythm of the activities. J The number of participants is correct. K The attention provided by the staff is good. The survey includes two additional questions that seek to determine the extent to which the interviewees are familiar with the concept of vegetable tourism and how they define it (Table 3). First, the interviewees were asked whether they knew what this type of tourism was. They were presented with four alternative responses, with which it was hoped to ascertain whether their taking part in the route had influenced their understanding of the idea underpinning the activity. Second, the respondents were allowed to choose between possible definitions of vegetable tourism: one that was correct (“Tourism aimed at discovering market gardens and orchards”); another that was basically acceptable (“Visits to a suburban farming area in the outskirts of a city”); and two that were incorrect (“Market gardening in the outskirts of a city” and “Suburban farming”). In this way, it was hoped to discover whether the knowledge supposedly held by the respondent about the activity corresponded to an accurate understanding of its actual meaning. Table 3: Questions determining the level of understanding that the interviewees professed to have of vegetable tourism and the way in which they actually defined it. DO YOU KNOW WHAT VEGETABLE TOURISM IS? a) I’ve never heard of it before. b) I’d never heard of it until I started the route, but now I know what it means because it has been explained to me. c) I have heard of it, but I still do not know what it means. d) I’ve been able to find out what it means for myself during or after finishing the route. HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE VEGETABLE TOURISM? a) Visits to a suburban farming area in the outskirts of a city. b) Market gardening in the outskirts of a city. c) Tourism aimed at discovering market gardens and orchards. d) Suburban farming. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 Valerià Paül Carril, Noelia Araújo Vila, Pablo de Carlos Villamarín 745 The survey was administered in the months of February and March 2011 by personal interviews conducted with the visitors as they finished the specific vegetable tourism activity. In these months, the main product being shown on the route was the artichoke (known in Catalan as CarxofaPrat), which explains why some of the questions on the survey specifically mention this vegetable. The total number of interviews conducted was 655, of which 313 were valid (47.8% response rate) (Table 4). Table 4: Technical details defining the research Characteristics Survey Population Visitors of the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat Geographical area Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat Sample size 313 valid surveys Sample error ± 5.5% Confidence level 95% Z = 1.96 p=q=0.5 Sample design Systematic random sampling Data collection method Personal interview Field work conducted between: 12/02/2011 -20/03/2011 Five variables were considered when determining the profile of the interviewees: sex, age, level of education, occupation and monthly family income (Figure 1). Figure 1: Socio ‑demographic profile of the interviewees (N = 313) GENDER AGE LEVEL OF EDUCATION OCCUPATION PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 746 Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism MONTHLY FAMILY INCOME Source: own elaboration. As can be seen, slightly more than two thirds of those interviewed are women. In addition, they are, on the whole, mature in age and well educated: only 21.4% of the respondents are under 45 years of age while 50.2% have a university degree. As for their occupation, almost four of every ten work as salaried employees (a quarter of these in the state sector), while a fifth are retired. Finally, 85.3% live in households with a monthly income of between 601 and 3,600 euros, distributed almost evenly between those with an income of between 601 and 1,800 euros, on the one hand, and those with an income of between 1,801 and 3,500 euros, on the other. In short, the average profile of the interviewees is that of a woman aged between 55 and 64 years of age, with a university degree, working as a salaried employee and whose monthly family income is between 1,801 and 3,600 euros, three to six times the minimum salary in Spain. Given that the data are ordinal and do not follow a normal distribution, 1 the non -parametric Kruskal -Wallis H -test and the Mann -Whitney U -test (Sheskin, 2007) were used to analyse whether the assessments of the route and its activities are significantly different depending on the profile of the interviewees and their responses regarding their knowledge and definition of vegetable tourism. When more than two samples are compared, the H -test fails to identify where the difference occurs, i.e., between which specific groups there is a systematic difference. It is, therefore, necessary to use the Mann -Whitney U -test. Thus, in the case of the sex variable, as there are only two options (i.e., two unrelated samples), the two tests yield the same result, and so the U -test is applied directly. For the rest of the variables, in which the number of options is greater than two (i.e., more than two unrelated samples), the H -test is applied first and, in those cases in which the test detects the presence of a significant relationship, the U -test is used to determine between which two specific groups it occurs.2 In short, the hypotheses tested are: • Null Hypothesis (H 0 ): no differences occur between any of the samples in terms of their responses to the questions posed. In other words, no systematically higher or lower assessments are recorded for any of the groups (samples) with respect to the others. • Alternative Hypothesis (H A ): a difference is recorded between at least two of the samples in terms of their responses to the questions posed. In other words, systematically higher or lower appraisals are recorded in at least one of the groups (samples) with respect to the others. 3. Analysis and results Below the results of the survey are analysed, beginning with those obtained in response to the questions regarding the visitors’ knowledge and definition of vegetable tourism. As can be seen in Figure 2, there is a clear majority (70.6%) of respondents who believe they have understood what this type of tourism means, above all those that attribute this understanding to the explanations received while taking part on the route. By contrast, 22.4% claim never to have heard the concept before; whereas, only 7% recognize that they still do not understand what it means despite having heard people use the term. When defining this type of tourism, a clear majority (77.9%) of those interviewed opted for the two accepted definitions and in fact the majority of those chose the correct one. It is worth stressing that, PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 Valerià Paül Carril, Noelia Araújo Vila, Pablo de Carlos Villamarín 747 among those claiming to know what vegetable tourism is as a result of the explanations received on the route, 81.03% chose the two accepted definitions. An almost identical figure (80.77%) was recorded by those who claimed to have found out the meaning for themselves during or after the route. By contrast, the percentage of correct responses fell ten points among those who claimed not to knowing the meaning of vegetable tourism. Therefore, in most cases the knowledge held by the respondent about the activity corresponded to an accurate understanding of its meaning. Figure 2: Knowledge and definition of vegetable tourism among the interviewees DO YOU KNOW WHAT VEGETABLE TOURISM IS? HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE VEGETABLE TOURISM? Note: Never heard before: I’ve never heard of it before; Now I know: I’d never heard of it until I started the route, but now I know what it means because it has been explained to me; Still don’t know: I have heard of it, but I still do not know what it means; Find out for myself: I’ve been able to find out what it means for myself during or after finishing the route. Visit: Visits to a suburban farming area in the outskirts of a city; Market gardening: Market gardening in the outskirts of a city; Tourism: Tourism aimed at discovering market gardens and orchards. Source: own elaboration. Given that our main interest in this section is the items that capture the level of user satisfaction with the route and its activities, we need to analyse the reliability of the scale. The value of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient (0.914) indicates that the scale has a high level of internal consistency. Moreover, the inter -item correlation matrix shows that the correlations between the different elements on the scale are all positive (no items are coded with an opposite sign to the others) and they can be considered acceptable, with a predominance of values between 0.4 and 0.58, although item F (“I enjoyed tasting the artichokes”) presents two correlations with values below 0.3. However, this item presents a correlation with the scale formed by the remaining items (corrected index of homogeneity) greater than 0.40 (specifically, 0.464), which allows us to consider it consistent with the rest of the scale. Furthermore, were it to be eliminated, the value of the Alpha coefficient rises to just 0.915. Therefore, the analysis confirms the validity and reliability of the survey used to measure the degree of satisfaction of the interviewees with the vegetable tourism activity undertaken. In general, the opinions expressed by those interviewed regarding the route and its activities are very positive (Table 5). The mean values of the assessments are over 4 in all instances, fluctuating between 4.17 for item H (“The activities lasted the right amount of time”) and 4.78 for item K (“The attention provided by the staff is good”). In addition to item K, four more items received an appraisal above the average for all the items (4.44): F (“I enjoyed tasting the artichokes”), G (“I enjoyed meeting the farmer”), B (“All the activities have been interesting”) and D (“I enjoyed the guided walk through the fields”). The median, mode (in both cases the maximum value was predominant), the maximum and the minimum indicate the same result. In short, the route and its activities appear to have made a very favourable impression on the participants of the vegetable tourism experience. PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 748 Assessing visitor satisfaction with a pioneering agritourism project: vegetable tourism Table 5: Main descriptors of the assessments obtained for the eleven items on the survey ITEM A B C D E F G H I J K Nº answers 313 313 313 313 313 313 313 313 313 313 313 Average 4,32 4,48 4,40 4,46 4,26 4,68 4,63 4,17 4,29 4,38 4,78 Median 45554554455 Mode 45555555555 Minimun 12111121122 Maximun 55555555555 Note: You can see the meaning of each item in Table 2. Source: own elaboration. Having presented the main findings from the responses to the survey, we next analyse whether the appraisals of the route and its activities differ significantly according to the sex, age, level of education, occupation and the family income of the interviewees, as well as according to the declared knowledge and real knowledge of the meaning of vegetable tourism. Below, the most important results are shown for those cases in which statistically significant differences were observed between two groups when applying the Mann -Whitney U -test (Table 6). Table 6: Statistics corresponding to significant cases obtained when applying the Mann ‑Whitney U ‑test ITEM GROUPS N ρMIDRANGE ITEM GROUPS N ρMIDRANGE B Man 103 0,0196 (0,05) 142,03 E Self- -employed 23 0,0012 (0,003) 13,26 Woman 210 164,34 Employed in the home 8 23,88 DMan 103 0,0444 (0,05) 143,99 E Self- -employed 23 0,0018 (0,003) 29,98 Woman 210 163,38 Retired 60 46,61 EMan 103 0,0178 (0,05) 141,13 F0 -600 12 0,0014 (0,008) 43,42 Woman 210 164,79 601 -1800 126 71,98 FMan 103 0,0238 (0,05) 144,56 C601 -1800 126 0,0023 (0,008) 85,60 Woman 210 163,10 >3600 34 61,62 GMan 103 0,0091 (0,05) 141,93 I601 -1800 126 0,0011 (0,008) 86,12 Woman 210 164,39 >3600 34 59,69 JMan 103 0,0024 (0,05) 137,09 J601 -1800 126 0,0031 (0,008) 85,58 Woman 210 166,76 >3600 34 61,68 D Primary 31 0,0026 (0,003) 27,66 B Now I Know 195 0,0046 (0,008) 112,55 PhD 16 16,91 Still don’t Know 22 77,55 PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. 13 N° 4. Special Issue. Julio 2015 ISSN 1695-7121 Valerià Paül Carril, Noelia Araújo Vila, Pablo de Carlos Villamarín 749 ITEM GROUPS N ρMIDRANGE ITEM GROUPS N ρMIDRANGE I Salaried 121 0,0029 (0,003) 62,69 A Visit 112 0,0026 (0,008) 73,25 Employed in the home 8 100,00 Suburban farming 25 49,96 E State workers 77 0,0019 (0,003) 55,01 Self- -employed 23 35,39 Note: You can see the meaning of Now I know, Still don’t know, Visit and Suburban farming in Figure 2. In turn, ρ is the p ‑value for the contrast (in parenthesis, the level of risk (a) taken after applica‑ tion of Bonferroni correction). Source: own elaboration. A good way to illustrate the above results is using the corresponding box plots (Figure 3). Figure 3: Box plots of the significant cases when applying the Mann ‑Whitney U ‑test ITEM B ITEM D ITEM E ITEM F ITEM G ITEM J